A few days ago, I picked up a copy of Namco Museum for the Sega Dreamcast. Namco Museum is a collection of six classic Namco coin-op arcade titles. Namco previously released five different "museum" collections for the Sony PlayStation, and this is their first edition for the Dreamcast. I'll have to admit that my expectations for this package were high. Since the Dreamcast is a much more powerful console than the PlayStation, I thought that the controls, and the quality of the emulation would be superior.

Screen captures of Namco Museum
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To start out with, the suggested retail price of this collection is $29.95. As I was at the checkout line, I thought that price was entirely too high for six games. I would have preferred to see more games for $29.95, or a lower price for six games in this collection. However, I kept reminding myself that these games were going to be emulated on the Dreamcast, so it should be well worth the money.

So, I got home and fired up the Dreamcast. The opening of the game shows a very simple main menu for selecting the games. There is some FANTASTIC music in the background that uses sound clips from the six games in the package. I must commend Namco for continuing a tradition (of sorts) for great music. The music in Namco's Pac-Man World for the PlayStation was out of this world, and the intro music to this collection is every bit as good. However, just because the intro music is good doesn't mean that the games will be any good.

The six games in this collection are Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Pole Position, and Dig-Dug. All of these games are considered to be classics, and are worthy of inclusion in this collection.

Of these six games, only four of them (Galaga, Galaxian, Pole Position, and Dig-Dug) seem to be emulated from the original arcade ROM's. Pac-Man & Ms-Pac-Man have been altered to the point that I do not believe that they are emulated. The sounds, graphics, and timing are so far off from the originals that I can only assume that the games were coded from the ground up.

For example, the sounds in Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man are similar to the original coin-op games, but they aren't quite right. The opening music on Ms. Pac-Man sounds like it is using the FM Synthesis features of the sound card in my PC. Yeah, the tune is the same, but the instruments are all wrong. The Ms. Pac-Man music shouldn't sound like it is played on a pipe organ.

Here's another example: In Pac-Man, the "waka-waka" sound from eating the dots seems off. It seems like the "waka-waka" sound was sampled from a Pac-Man machine, but the sample isn't very clean. I can hear a distinct "click" noise in the background when Pac-Man eats dots. On top of that, the sound seems to play too fast, like there is some kind of timing problem. It seems to me that you get ten "waka" sounds for every seven or eight dots that you eat.

Remember, the collection is called "Namco Museum," yet there is NO museum-style historical information for any of the games included in this package. Isn't that a bit misleading?

Well, once I got over my frustration with Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man, I tried out a few of the other games. Galaga & Galaxian were pretty good. They do appear to be emulated using the original arcade ROM's, so gameplay was faithful to the original coin-op arcade games. However, in Galaxian, there is this annoying "hum" in the background. The original Galaxian game had some background noise for the enemy ships. It was kind of a low-pitched buzzing noise that had a pulsating effect. That effect is gone, and now there is this mind-numbing "hum" in the background.

Pole Position can be played with the analog joystick on the standard Dreamcast controller. It is a bit sensitive, but once you get the hang of it, you will be tearing around the racetrack, and racking up some great scores. In the original coin-op game, there was some sampled speech, but most of it is missing from this game. For example, the sampled speech I expected to hear at the end of the qualifying lap was gone. The sampled speech that did make it into this game seems to be a different voice. I guess that isn't too big of a deal to get upset about, because Atari released the Pole Position coin-op in the US, and the original Namco version used Japanese speech.

Dig-Dug has made the transition without too many problems. The emulation seems accurate, and the sounds are dead-on. However, some of the timing seems to be off, and movement was sluggish.

Speaking of sluggishness, all of the games (except Pole Position) suffered from some form of sluggish controls. Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man were the two worst offenders. The controls in those two games were completely unacceptable. It is entirely too easy to get caught in a pickle, and not be able to maneuver your way around. Usually, this means death.

Included in this package is a game that can be downloaded on to your VMU. The game is called Pac-It. The object of the game is for Pac-Man to eat all of the dots that are thrown at him. It plays just like Kaboom! on the Atari 2600. Pac-Man is on one end of the screen, and he must eat all of the dots as they rain down on him. If you miss a dot, you lose a life. It was interesting that they included a game to play on the VMU, but Pac-It held my attention for about four seconds.

Now, for my biggest complaint... One of the best features of Namco's "museum" titles on the PlayStation were all of the little "extras" such as historical information, trivia, cabinet photos, and flyers. Those previous titles featured a virtual "museum" that you could walk through, and view all kinds of information on the games. This has not been included in this package. Remember, the collection is called "Namco Museum," yet there is NO museum-style historical information for any of the games included in this package. Isn't that a bit misleading? Shouldn't it be called "Namco Classics" or "The Namco Collection" or something else? You put the word "museum" in a title, and people are going to expect something.

I can't recommend this title at all -- not even to the hardcore classic gamers. After experiencing some of Namco's superb "Museum" titles on the PlayStation, I had high hopes for this collection. Ultimately, I was extremely disappointed.

The few good parts of this package, such as Galaga & Pole Position, are completely tarnished by the sheer amount of control problems, timing issues, and sound glitches like the annoying "hum" noise in Galaxian. Granted, there will probably be plenty of people who will be happy with the games in this collection. However, as a hard-core classic gamer who grew up with the original coin-op games, I already know the "ins and outs" of each of these games, and I am familiar with all of the little nuances. For the most part, Namco Museum did not recreate the feel of the original games.

In my opinion, the developer (Mass Media) and Namco slapped together this package as quick as they could, with little or no thought for overall quality of the final product. I don't even think anyone bothered to check the games for their accuracy before they released this collection, because many of these games just don't "feel" like the original coin-op games. Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man don't even look like the original coin-ops. Frankly, I feel ripped off.

For $29.95, I should have gotten a few more games. I should have gotten games that are a bit more faithful to the original coin-op games. I should have gotten controls that work properly. I should have gotten the missing "museum" exhibits.